Chain Hook

[johnmcc69]

Hey Brian,
do a search for "Dream Cutter". It's a compound attachment for small lathes that turns balls & swings radius (Radi). VERY COOL PRODUCT. Saw it in an Alibre newsletter I got at work. Designed in Alibre by some hobbyist.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Thanks for all the helpfull replys and suggestions guys. BUT----Remember, its only a model. It is going to spend the next 100 years or so setting around on a shelf, and may be fired up once a year to show an interested visitor. I am not terribly concerned that it doesn't swivel. I am not even terribly concerned that it isn't perfectly round.It LOOKS good, and that is really all that is required of it. It supplys enough weight to keep the line taut. I do have a ball turner, and I could have made a cardboard template. I could have used two ball bearings (but if you have ever tried to anneal a ball bearing to work with it, you probably wouldn't have made that suggestion.) I could have designed it with an internal swivel----But it just doesn't matter that much.

 

[miner49r]

I have been waiting for our resident mathematician to give you a proverbial slap for not using his sphere program.

 

[rhitee93]

Not to be a suck up, but I think it's great.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I have been waiting for our resident mathematician to give you a proverbial slap for not using his sphere program.

Marv does some truly great math, and is a hero for giving it freely to the masses. I downloaded and tried to run some of his programs, but wasn't succesfull. I'm not terribly worried about that, because I'm no slouch at math myself, and that combined with my near magical engineering design software would have quickly let me figure out how to step turn the ball-----if I had really cared that much.----And thank you rhitee93!!!

 

[johnmcc69]

Really, that is great Brian...sketch it up on a napkin. Thats how ideas are born . Build it in your kitchen . There are NO RULES to creating. We use devices everyday that were just an idea & never documented. Yes, thats a lot of MATH. & thtey deserve
muuuuch credit.

 

[Mosey]

How about I be satisfied with what I've just made??? For a piece of scrap steel and a couple of hours on a boring Sunday, it doesn't get any better than this!!! The shine on that ball will die back in a couple of hours to the same semi gloss finish as the boiler. The ugly knot holding the ball in place for now will be finished with some black thread reaving put on with fly tying dope when I get around to it.

Wouldn't a snap eye woven into the end of the rope just like the big ones look nice? J.

Forgot to mention...that's one hell of a great machine you made!

 

[b.lindsey]

The whole thing looks great Brian and the ball hook definitely adds a nice finishing touch!! Back in the day, I assume these would have likely been cast and therefore imperfect as well. Looks like you will need a whole shelf just for that model alone

Bill

 

[Busydad]

That is a great looking finished engine..

 

[kf2qd]

Let me begin by saying that I had no idea how difficult it is to file a round ball in a lathe. Then let me follow up by saying that its TWICE as hard to file two round balls on a lathe!!!---And they're still not really round. And I've polished them with a variety of emery paper, and its almost impossible to get the file marks out afterwards-----And they still aren't really "round".

I have found that it is easier if you have several grades of emery cloth and start out very course and work your way finer. Plenty of speed. The courser grade will cut fast to start with but the results come out really smooth. And if you finish up with a little oil on the part for the final polishing.

 

[itowbig]

well brain i like it a lot thats pretty cool.
theres always somebody to make things better.
but i think its just flippen great the way it is i always look for
your work it keeps my small mind out of trouble hahaha